ON ENGLISH WATER jMEADOWS. 95 



of sewage by separating it from the lif|uid. The water in the 

 burn referred to passes direct to the pond, without irrigation for 

 a number of months every year. 



It is not easy to say how far the meadow system as practised 

 in the best district of England, where grapes are annually grown 

 in the open air, can be advantageously adopted in Scotland. 

 Formidable obstacles stand in the way, the cost and difliculties 

 of drainage, the inclemency of the climate, the inferiority of the 

 water, and the closeness of the meadow soils, are all elements that 

 must be encountered, and more or less surmounted. It is well 

 known that in the march of improvement the climate of Scot- 

 land has been gradually ameliorated, for 150 years ago Scotland 

 had the repute of being a land of famine. Where extensive 

 districts consisted of trackless upland deserts and wastes, marshes 

 and bogs, early improvers met with only partial success. We 

 have seen reputable land in the vicinity of the great bogs towards 

 the west of Ireland, having an atmosphere constantly loaded with 

 vapour, which had to be consigned to grass mowing, as the only 

 profitable style of occupancy, but which would have been good 

 corn land under more favourable conditions. In the west of 

 Scotland, where dairying and meadowing are associated with al- 

 most every farm, the annual rainfall is seldom under four feet ; 

 this to some extent is an index of climate, and though many of 

 the English meadows stand at a considerable elevation above 

 sea-level, higher in many cases than the western meadows of 

 Scotland, still the latter will not compare advantageously with 

 England as regards climate. This has been disputed, but the 

 inferiority of the cereal crops in the dairy districts referred to, 

 and the lateness and precariousness of the harvests, clearly prove 

 the vast superiority of the English climate. 



But with all these drawbacks, we do not despair of seeing an 

 extension of water meadows in Scotland, in the vales, and up the 

 slopes of the dry hills. The " moss-crap " of the hills in their 

 natural state is the first relief in the spring for the flocks of the 

 storemaster, and were artificial means resorted to, an earlier and 

 a larger bite of herbage might be produced. Many of the 

 Grampian Hills might be greatly improved by utilising the burns 

 that flow down their slopes, where there is an ordinary depth of 

 earth, and where they are not greatly encumbered with stones. 

 No person can have failed to observe that where springs break out 

 from the sides of the mountains, they have extinguished heath, 

 and raised green grass on all the lower ground over which they 

 have spread. These tiny streams could be conducted by hori- 

 zontal ruts along the sides of the hills, and in their downward 

 trickling, the heather would disappear, and a mantle of green 

 herbage would take its place. The opinion has been advanced 

 that with a favourable exposure, such an improvement might be 



